It is expected that
in just 24 months, traders, travelers, fishermen and women will no longer be crossing
the Zambezi River on floating planks, ferries, rickshaw boats and canoes.

This is after the
opening of the Kazungula Bridge which will link and open up markets in eight
African countries.

Travelling between
the water-rich but land-locked Zambia and Botswana will get easier, smoother
and faster, when the new road and rail bridge, currently under construction
across the waters of the Zambezi, is commissioned for public use.

The 923-metre-long by
18.5-metre-wide masterpiece will link the town of Kazungula in Zambia with
Botswana.

Its location
traverses the intersection of the Zambezi and Chobe rivers. At this point, four
countries – Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – meet.

The Kazungula Bridge
Project will have a single-line railway track, pavement for pedestrians and
international border facilities: two One-Stop Border Posts, located on
Botswanan and Zambian territory.

When completed, the
bridge will be connected to the Mosetse-Kazungula Railway.

“It is obvious that once completed, the Kazungula Bridge Project will actually bridge the regional divide,” says Mamady Souare, Manager for Regional Integration Operations at the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).

Speaking during a tour of a section of the bridge during the PIDA Week, held from 26-29 November 2018, Souare added: “The project will transform the dynamics of transportation in surrounding communities, counties and cities, boosting road travel and the ease of doing business within the Southern African Development Community, the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.”

The development has been facilitated by a tripartite arrangement between Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe on the North-South Corridor within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region and is part of a corridor-long infrastructure improvement programme, to enhance regional trade and integration.

Following feasibility studies and funding approval for the nearly USD 260 million project by the board of the African Development Bank in 2011, construction began in 2014, after the governments of Zambia and Botswana announced a deal to build a bridge, replacing the existing Kazungula ferry service.

Zimbabwe was brought
on board the project as a stakeholder in March 2018, after Presidents Emmerson
Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, Ian Khama of Botswana and Edgar Lungu of Zambia jointly
inspected the progress of the multi-million-dollar project.

NEPAD Chief Executive Officer, Ibrahim Mayaki, said: “Progress is not only visible on the Kazungula Bridge Project, but this project is proof of the consensus and focus on infrastructure development amongst regional and continental stakeholders and credit must be given to PIDA for this.”

As of October 2018,
the project had created about 1,485 new jobs including employment for 118
women.

It also aligns with
several programs and strategies put in place by regional and continental bodies
to improve infrastructure as an anchor for sustainable transformation.

These include: the
SADC Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan; the Revised SADC Regional
Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2015 – 2020; the Tripartite Trade and
Transport Facilitation Programme; the New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD) Short-Term Action Plan, and PIDA.

As the first wave of
vehicles and pedestrians begin to use the new bridge, the regional economy will
receive a much-needed boost through increased traffic throughout the
North-South Corridor, a key trade route linking the port of Durban in South
Africa to Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, DR Congo, and up to
Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.

The facility will
effectively serve as a gateway for goods from landlocked Zambia and Botswana to
the afore listed countries straddling the North-South Corridor, a geographical
zone of about 279 million people, larger than the populations of France,
Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain combined.

When completed, the bridge and one-stop-border-posts facilities will enhance regional trade, spur increased global competitiveness due to reduced time-based trade and transport costs, and reduction of transit time for freight and passengers from between three to eight days to less than half a day.

The Exchange is a financial journal published by Mediapix Limited, a public relations, news and communications organization with its African headquarters in Tanzania and sister operations in Canada, the United States and The United Arab Emirates. The company‘s founders have been instrumental in the media and communication industry in East Africa and have been operational in the region.